Went down to Ynys Las turn off this pm with Bob to look for the Surf Scoter. We met up with Richard Dobbins and Karen and eventually we had pretty good sitings before the rain dampened our enthusiasm and we set off home. On getting home I was looking thro' the Collins and BWP books and now I'm a bit confused as to the gender of the bird, it appeared to have a pale nape patch thus indicating a male but it definitely showed a distinctive pale patch behind the eye and this would be a female, any comments would be welcome. We also saw several first winter drake Common Scoter showing very yellow upper mandibles, Red-throated Diver and Great-Crested Grebe.
Back at home I was surprised to get a male Brambling with the Chaffinch and Greenfinch flock under the feeders, this follows on from finding what looked like a very flat male Brambling on the roadside outside the house yesterday.